# Sudin Dhavalikar

Ramkrishna alias Sudin Madhav Dhavalikar (born 21 November 1956) is an Indian politician, and a senior leader of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP). He is a six-term member of the Goa Legislative Assembly, representing the Marcaim constituency and former deputy Chief Minister of Goa.

## Ministry portfolios

He has been a Minister in various governments for over 15 years, holding important portfolios by forming alliances with various political parties.
Goa State Cabinet Ministry Portfolios held by Sudin Dhavalikar :
| Took Office | Left Office | Portfolios Held | Chief Minister | Party |
| 3 June 2002 | 31 January 2005 | P.W.D., Archives & Archaeology, Museum, and Fisheries | Manohar Parrikar | BJP |
| 3 February 2005 | 4 March 2005 | Public Works Department, Fisheries, Archives & Archaeology, and Museum | Manohar Parrikar | BJP |
| 7 June 2005 | 5 June 2007 | Public Works Department, Fisheries, Archives & Archaeology, Museum, and Co-operation | Shri Pratapsingh Rane | INC |
| 8 June 2007 | 28 July 2007 | Public Works Department, and Science & Technology | Shri Pratapsingh Rane | INC |
| 14 March 2008 | 1 February 2012 | Transport, River Navigation Department, and Social Welfare | Digambar Kamat | INC |
| 9 March 2012 | 8 November 2014 | Public Works Department, Transport, and River Navigation | Manohar Parrikar | BJP |
| 8 November 2014 | 12 December 2016 | Public Works Department, Transport, and River Navigation | Laxmikant Parsekar | BJP |
| 20 March 2017 | 17 March 2019 | Public Works Department, Transport, River Navigation, and Museum | Manohar Parrikar | BJP |
| 18 March 2019 | 27 March 2019 | Public Works Department, Transport, River Navigation, and Museum | Pramod Sawant | BJP |
| 9 April 2022 | Present | Power, New & Renewable Energy, and Housing | Pramod Sawant | BJP |
On 27 March 2019, he was dropped from the Cabinet of Ministers as the Deputy Chief Minister, as well as the ruling alliance, after two MGP MLAs (Deepak Pauskar and Manohar Ajgaonkar) broke away from the party and joined the ruling BJP, merging the MGP legislative party into the BJP. A disqualification plea of the two breakaway MGP MLAs, along with 10 other congress MLAs was dismissed by the High Court of Bombay at Goa.

## Political party

He is a senior leader of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, Goa's first ruling party after the end of Portuguese colonial rule in 1961. He has played a pivotal role in survival and success of the party for last 20 years.

## Controversy

In 2015, two members of Aam Aadmi Party – Pradip Ghadi Amonkar and Mujahid Rizvi – alleged that Dhavalikar, while contesting the previous Assembly election, had sworn a false affidavit that he is a BSc graduate. They claimed that Sudin Dhavalikar had lied in his sworn affidavit regarding his educational qualification. The aggrieved approached the court as they claimed that Ponda police had declined to register an FIR against Dhavalikar. After inquiring with the Bombay University, Ponda police submitted in the court that Dhavalikar's BSc degree is genuine. The Ponda court promptly dismissed the case noting that JMFC Apurva Nagvekar did not find any merit in the application made by the aggrieved party.